Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Rhynchospora inexpansa (Michx.) Vahl
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: The characteristics that distinguish this beakrush from all the others are its achene that has horizontal ridges on it, the setose tubercle perched on top of the achene, and its achene about twice as long as broad.
- Habitat: Sandy and alluvial shores, low pinelands, wet ditches, bogs, savannas, moist to dry soils in flatwoods, around ponds.
- Habit: Tufted perennial sedge with a thickened rootstock.
- Stems: Upright, rather stout, up to 3 feet tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Elongated, narrow, shorter than the flowering stems, up to 1/4 inch wide.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets; spikelets borne in axillary and terminal cymes, the inflorescence up to 6 inches long.
- Spikelets: Lanceolate, brown, 1- to 4-flowered, up to 1/2 inch long.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Achenes flat, ellipsoid, at least twice as long as broad, up to 1/6 inch long, yellowish, marked with horizontal ridges, the terminal tubercle very slender, setose; bristles subtending the achene 6, longer than the achene.
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